Archive for the 'Soul Coughing' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

In The Book of Drugs, his autobiography from just last year, Mike Doughty, former frontman for beat-jazz-meets-hip-hop cult favorite Soul Coughing, denounces that band's songs, insisting he will never play them again – he's quite happy touring behind his solo material, thank you very much. The 43-year-old sometimes comes off bitter in his memoir, yet he also seems honest about his lack of interest in nostalgia.

That's why his current tour is so intreresting, and unexpected. The show, billed as Mike Doughty (used to be in) Soul Coughing, stopped Friday night at Hollywood's Fonda Theatre, which was unfortunately only two-thirds-full, before heading to poorly attended replay Saturday at the Observatory in Santa Ana.

You've probably already guessed, but Doughty – supported by a two-piece, double-bass-and-drums setup very similar to his old group's mode – is now exclusively playing songs from that back catalog. And, shockingly, looks pretty happy doing it.

Ostensibly the songs have been “reconstructed” (he's also issued an album of these new versions), but let's be honest here: no one came to either gig expecting or hoping for anything unrecognizable. Doughty has added some breakbeats to “Super Bon Bon,” dropped synthy noise washes onto “True Dreams of Witchita” and plays “Screenwriter's Blues” by literally putting a record on a turntable and waxing over wax. But the basic structure and tone of all of the songs remains the same.

Usually Jack FM stages its annual retro shindig at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine. Not this time. The 2013 edition, dubbed “Flashback Jack,” is moving indoors and into a smaller configuration, taking over the Theatre at Honda Center (the arena’s half-house setup) on Sept. 21.

What’s more, organizers have focused their lineup more tightly than usual, unearthing a bill that might have played a place three times as large back in ’83: Blondie, Rick Springfield, Adam Ant, the Psychedelic Furs, the Fixx, Berlin and, the only rap act on the roster, the Sugarhill Gang. Tickets, $36-$101, go on sale Friday, Aug. 9, at 10 a.m.

Big Top: If you read our review earlier this week of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ Hollywood Bowl show, then you’re at least aware that the L.A. gang of sunny eccentrics will create and curate “a new and distinctive circus experience” in the round and under a traditional tent at L.A. State Historic Park for four nights, Oct. 17-20.

The final date, in fact, will feature two performances, a matinee for families followed by an evening set. Also promised is a farmer’s market, plus beer gardens, late-night happenings, vaudeville comedy, acrobats – and presumably another band or three. Tickets, $60, are on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

Simply an unreal experience for a lifelong Radiohead fan to see them in a loose, moving, playful, impassioned performance Sunday night at the Music Box at the Fonda in Hollywood.

Intimate doesn't adequately explain it. Both A-list celebrities (of which they were many on hand) and the general public (those who few hundreds who smartly/luckily bid high enough to score a pair of tickets via online auction) have rarely had the opportunity to see the group this way. Not while on tour. Not without all of the spectacle that comes with the Big Radiohead Show. Not in a way that leaves you feeling like your eavesdropping.

Instead, this was just the most exciting band in music for at least the past decade ... taking a break from studio work nearby ... alone on a bare stage with minimal backdrop or lighting craziness ... playing a 24-song set loaded with both recent material still fresh in their bones and repertoire staples they never forget ... so much of it seemingly chosen with an ear for what might resonate with the cause itself ... all of it rehearsed only so much, which made occasional flubs that much more endearing ... the whole of it stunning a thousand or so people into coughing up some dough for devastated Haitians.

And cough up a lot they did: Thom Yorke announced amid the second encore (just after the new song "Lotus Flower" and before another mighty attack on "Paranoid Android") that the event grossed $572, 754 for Oxfam America's Haiti Relief fund.